Let Puri Jagannadh Introduce You To THE BUSINESS MAN, Mahesh Babu

Several weeks ago, the Telugu film Dookudu made international news when it had the biggest opening weekend ever for a Telugu film and reportedly the biggest opening weekend in US history for a foreign language film without subtitles. That film starred Tollywood pretty boy/action star Mahesh Babu, or Prince Mahesh to his legion of fans. The film made roughly $1.4 million dollars in it's opening weekend, which is just a bit less than last year's Enthiran, which was subtitled in English and released in three languages.  The film's success has encouraged the producers behind Puri Jagannadh's The Business Man, starring Mahesh Babu, to do something very unusual.  They are planning to subtitle the film in English. It seems like a small thing, but in the insular community of Indian cinemas in the US and overseas very few south Indian films are subtitled in English, which makes this a big deal.

Production company RR Movie Makers are hoping to capitalize on the popularity of Mahesh Babu and the heat generated from Dookudu's record opening. The film has a few advantages in terms of its eventual box office performance as well.  Director Puri Jagannadh was also behind this summer's Hindi masala hit, Buddah Hoga Tera Baap starring Amitabh Bachchan.  That film raised Jagannadh's profile and made him a big name outside of the Telugu film industry.  In addition to that, Jagannadh's last collaboration with Mahesh Babu was the blockbuster Telugu hit Pokiri, and many people will flock to the cinema to see what comes from their latest pairing. Also in the film's corner is the masala heroine du jour, Kajal Agarwal (Magadheera, Singham), who comes to the film with a long string of huge hits behind her. 

All signs point to a huge success.  Both Pokiri and Buddah Hoga Tera Baap were very fun, and great entertainment, so The Business Man should be nothing less. Jagannadh and Mahesh Babu's film is scheduled to hit theaters in three languages on January 11th, 2012.  I've wrangled a couple of trailers, there's a lot of unsubtitled dialogue, but the action speaks for itself.